Sara Schaefer Sighting at the Sasquatch! Music Festival

“Are you guys super fucked up right now?” Sara Schaefer gleefully asked the crowd as she began her stand up set on the El Chupacabra stage at the Sasquatch! Music Festival. A cheer erupted from the acknowledgement of the super-stoned elephant in the room. The El Chupacabra tent featured the festival’s comedy acts as well as the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) performances. With loud bass coming from the nearby stages and confused ravers scattered in the crowd, this tent was set up to be a less experienced comedian’s nightmare. Sara, on the other hand, won the crowd over almost instantaneously. As she riffed about the stage setup and expressed her concerns with 2 Chainz’s “pumpin’ pussy like gas” lyrics, roars of laughter filled the tent. She left the functional comedy fans in laughing-fits and provided better drug trips for those who were too high to laugh. After her first ever Music Festival performance Sara and I discussed how it went. “Three years ago I could have never done this,” said Schaefer humbly as she expressed her previous nervousness about music festival crowds.

Sara’s success was a matter of time, as she’s logged 13 years of experience in stand up comedy. One of her more recent triumphs was her MTV show Nikki & Sara Live. Sara met co-star Nikki Glaser at a party in 2010 and immediately the two became friends.They got to know each other through their podcast ‘You Had To Be There’. The podcast’s success led to their eventual TV offer. After being given the ability to hire comedy writers for their show, Nikki and Sara decided to find writers a less traditional way: blind submissions. Without knowing anything about the applicants other than the material the writers penned, they put everyone on an even playing field. Some of the writers that Sara hired have gone on to work for shows like Colbert Report and The Tonight Show. “I felt really proud that we were able to give them that opportunity,” said Schaefer about the group of writers who may not have gotten noticed without this unique way of staffing.

Lately Sara has been touring the country doing stand up and advertising her debut Comedy album Chrysalis. Though comedy albums are not being bought as often today, she expects hers to serve as a promotional tool for her stand up. As for the experience of making the album, Sara was blown away by the amount of control she had over editing the material. In recording multiple shows with the same material, she explained that comedians are able to make it “exactly the way you want.” As Sara looks back on her material in the album, she already feels like she has improved so much admitting “those jokes have already gotten better.” As a hardworking and humble star on the rise, expect to see a lot more of Sara Schaefer in the future.